1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to advertising over a network such as the Internet. More specifically, the present invention is related to a method and system for improving the effectiveness of Internet advertising.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
On-line advertising systems provide advertisements (ads) to users in a variety of formats such as banners that may be displayed at the top or bottom of a web page on the user's browser. Such ads may include scrolled information containing images, texts or objects that change with time. The banner ad serves as an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) link that allows the user to be linked to a specific web page if the user clicks on the banner ad. The browser accomplishes this by generating a HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) message using information encapsulated in the banner to send a request for an object with a specific URL (Uniform Resource Locator), for example, the advertisers home page.
Currently, advertising on web pages is essentially related to the content of the page. The returned page may be unique in the sense that it is composed especially for the user and the system decides which advertisements to return together with the page. Due to limited space on the displayed web page and the fact that a web page is only viewed for a short period of time, advertisers try to change the displayed ads quickly. The ads can either be part of one dynamic “gif” (Graphic Interchange Format) file or an applet which fetches more ads. The problem with this method is that some times a user may indeed be interested in one of the ads but misses it and then has no way of returning to it. The problem is even more severe when the user goes to a first URL, sees an ad there, then goes to a second URL, and then returns to the first URL. By the time the user returns to the first URL, the ad has been replaced and leaves no opportunity for retrieval.
The present invention overcomes the above mentioned drawbacks by providing a method and system that increases the effectiveness of advertising by allowing the user to return and request previously displayed ads that are of interest.